Reclaiming security and infrastructures: the emergence and discontents of “Safe City” projects from Jerusalem to Bishkek

Abstract This article examines the role of infrastructure in so-called “Safe” and “Smart City” projects. It shows how these projects address security issues selectively and can become active drivers of urban insecurity processes. We explain this with the fact that, while infrastructures are seen as integral to the security of some, they often also undermine the safety of others, a process which we conceptualize as “infrastructured insecurity.” Providing empirical analyses from Jerusalem (Israel/Occupied Palestinian territories) and Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) the article illustrates how “infrastructured insecurity” exists despite, or emerges directly from, “Smart” and “Safe City” projects, but also how communities challenge the exclusionary forms of security those projects imply. Infrastructures therefore prompt us to reframe and rethink different understandings and practices of security, including the creation and reclaiming of security, in and beyond the urban.